Turquoise Waters of Tonga
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We enjoyed the sandy white beaches of Tonga on two different island groups: Vava’u and Ha’apai. Tonga has so many islands in close proximity that the waters between the low-laying islands are calm and great for sailing and snorkeling and kayaking.
We experienced a bit of the very hot and humid season and then the weather shifted to the warm, humid and windier season (called winter by the New Zealanders that visit the islands) …
Keeping us happy with mainly South Pacific songs during the storm
… which included a nearly-hurricane strength storm pounding our beachfront cottage with really heavy rain for 3 days and 2 nights, with gale-force winds that blew the roofs off some houses a few islands over. A few days later, a minor earthquake rocked our world. But – experiencing nature is what life is all about for us.
Tonga is the least developed destination of our journey so far. No TV, no internet in our cottages (only available in the restaurant area, usually), no transportation to the neighboring small villages – just beautiful beaches, different shades of warm turquoise ocean water, colorful reef fishes, palm trees and coconuts …. and mosquitos and flies ... but, well, nothing is ever perfect.
So, in short, there is not much else to do.
Anticipating some down time, we bought a 1000-piece jigsaw-puzzle in Sydney that we solved during the stormy weather of heavy winds and pounding rain. After completing it, we split it in two halves (in two bags), and now we are ready for another rainy day competition to see who is faster putting together their 500-piece puzzle half. After that, we can switch halves for another rainy day competition. It’s just a thing we do and a bit of fun.
We also enjoyed the many shells that can be found along the beaches to make photo collages.
Bringing agricultural items, animal or plant products, into New Zealand or Australia is strictly forbidden, and it is not good to take shells away from their natural habitat anyway, so we decided to put them back into their natural environment when we left.
Collecting shells was actually a lot of fun, as we then looked at field guides and reef ID books in the resort library and tried to identify the names and different groups of shells, and ultimately, we hope to spot the mollusks underwater with their shells intact.
The tides around our second location in Tonga washed ashore shells and coral pieces
Outdoor living on Ha’apai right next to the beaches
Outdoor living in Va’vau
Our secluded abode called “fale” on the islands
Our private beach a short walk from our fale on Ha’apai
At night we had absolute darkness around us for outstanding night sky viewing or observing the rather large hermit crabs on their way to building new burrows in the sand. After dinner, we would walk along the dark walkway looking at the silhouettes of palm trees against the milky way.
Gitty saw the shadows and colors as would a watercolor artist
Beautiful turquoise aerial views flying over the islands of Tonga
Arriving in the capital city of Nuku’alofa
The kingdom of Tonga, located between Fiji and Niue in the Pacific Ocean has 170 islands, of which only 34 are constantly inhabited. The population speaks Tongan and English, and although Tonga is a kingdom, an elected premier minister and his party are taking care of the politics, and most of the royal family is in total disregard and living overseas in NZ.
The presidential palace - one of the oldest buildings still standing in Tonga!
Improvement of living standard in Tonga is slow going. Their population of roughly 100,000 is rather poor and many sustain themselves from the land.
Typical Tongan family home. Note: on the left side the raised platform for garbage pick up to prevent the pigs and dogs from scavenging. This is typical throughout the South Pacific islands where animals roam freely.
The people of the village near our resort on Ha’apai mostly grow their own food and don’t have to work a paying job. They were described to us as content without the luxuries of the western world, instead living the relaxed life of an islander.
Another typical home in Nuku’alofa. Note: No “aircon” (A/C) but fresh air flowing through the slatted windows. These are some nicer houses; outside the capital they are quite different
There are hardly any exports coming from Tonga and nearly everything has to be imported; infrastructure is there but often destroyed by earthquakes and typhoons. Tourism is minor, but picking up.
Fields of taro, a staple in the South Pacific, are planted everywhere, even among palm tree groves
With a very long and sharp hooked blade on two connected bamboo poles, young coconuts are pruned for consumption
The Tongan population is very religious; even in small villages there are often 6 or 7 churches (no bell-clanging church towers) with different Christian denominations. Tongans with ambition tend to leave the island for better opportunities in New Zealand and Australia.
Every family owns their own plot of land, often a whole island, and when the parents die, the oldest son inherits the property which is then, so we heard first-hand, split between the brothers. Sisters, aka women, do not own land; if there are no sons, the land reverts back to the brother(s) of the father.
Tongan women wear dresses that cover at least up to the knees
The professional attire for men in Tonga is a tupeno (skirt) always in muted colors
I talked to two women here that are working partially in hospitality and studying at the same time online at the Fijian University (not the Tongan college) for a nursing degree to later work in New Zealand, Australia or the US. A woman’s only other prospects on Tonga involve marriage, not a bright future for a strong, independent female.
Between our first and second long stays on the two different island groups, we also spent a few days in the capital city of Nuku’alofa on the largest island called Tongatapu.
This woman is wearing a kiekie, a traditional Tongan girdle over a tupenu (wrap around skirt) which we have seen commonly worn in the capital city
A government official with his ta’ovala (waist mat) typically worn as a symbol of respect and humility during formal events
We visited a stone monument erected in 1200 AD with carvings indicating the Summer and Winter solstices, the longest and shortest days of the year.
Not too far away, we observed an area with a natural row of blowholes blasting jets of water in the air.
White-collared Kingfisher is common to Tonga
Tonga is famous for snorkeling with humpback whales and their offspring in the summer months or watching them breach directly from the beaches. Of course, for those four months it is high season in Tonga, July to October, and most of the few hotels and resorts have been booked out way in advance. We chose to be in Tonga during the off-season, as we have seen humpbacks quite a bit in Massachusetts on their way from the south to their northern feeding grounds. Just the same, on a different South-North route.
After having earlier encountered the extremely friendly Fijians and Niueans, we found the Tongan people to be much more reserved. Yet, once you get to know them, they are also friendly, but there is that initial hurdle to overcome.
Similar to Niue, chickens and dogs roam the streets, but here in Tonga, also roam the pigs. Especially the curious juveniles, exploring their surroundings after having been always by their moms.
Roaming free, the piglets still know where to return for their food (left-overs, potatoes and coconut meat). Yet, it appears to us that there is never pork on the menu as those pigs are kept, like on most of the islands, for special occasions.
This building shows the traditional roof shape that was used all over the islands before western styles were adopted in the South Seas
We went diving on each island group, but our first dive was the most memorable. Looking over the water for a long time onto the water…
… I imagined with which colors to paint it: dark ultramarine blue with greyed down lighter patches, throw in some dark green towards the boat, with some white crests, right next to darker areas, the shadows of the crests, on irregular intervals. When we came to a quieter wave area, the colors switched nearly immediately to a dark very saturated turquoise, and some minutes later, we were in an ocean of bright, very light turquoise water, as far as the eye could see. The depth of the ocean had become much shallower. There were some darker areas as well, with rather clear-cut edges that were coral formations of all sizes between the light beige sandy bottom.
Near an island’s cliff coast abundant with green vegetation, we anchored, put on our gear, and back-rolled into the clear water. We immediately spotted a football-sized octopus in his den, which tried several color- and texture disguises when all three of us showed up at his doorstep. To see an octopus is an absolute highlight for everyone in my diving family!
The reef had interesting formations, with lots of different hard corals of all colors which we enjoyed a lot, as we were only about 20 meters deep. Lots and lots of smaller reef fish and several schools of midsize fishes, who like to swim in big groups. We dived with the reef to the right side, and to the left was the big dark-blue deep, endless and mysterious. In that direction we observed three tunas quickly darting by, and further in the distance we spotted a turtle, which our guide identified as a green turtle, by the shell pattern on its back. Almost an hour later, we were back in the boat, smiling about a wonderful experience and heading back to the dock at our resort. It’s always nice to be picked up and dropped off where you’re staying, whatever the water activity.
Our greatest highlight in Tonga was cruising with a large catamaran for a whole day. Sailing through the many islands is what Tonga is famous for, we were told. We didn’t know exactly what our agenda included, only that snorkeling would also be involved.
The first stop was Coral Gardens, one of the top 10 snorkeling sites in the world. And it was! Huge yellow disks of table coral, giant bulbs of Brain coral clearly centuries old, green mushroom coral, finger coral, cauliflower coral, spiny Staghorn and bright yellow Fire coral. Very healthy hard corals, of all possible varieties and colors, growing all next to and on top of each other in endless fields, just a few meters below us. Clear water and lots and lots of fish. We were happy to see a beautiful eagle ray, working with his mouth along the sandy bottom, until he must have spotted us, and came up in circles nearly to our level, checking us out and then taking off.
Fruit bats called flying foxes
We stopped at an uninhabited island with a wide sandy beach on one side and lots of high rocks, trees and vegetation on the other side. Flying foxes, how large fruit bats are called, had here one of their daytime resting spots, and it was great and easy to see them flying and then hanging upside down from a tree, many of them on the same tree. A picture perfect island, with a sandwich tern nesting on a nearby rock/tree stump and clearly not happy that we invaded his island, squawking at us and flying really low. So we didn’t stay long.
Our last stop was a cave, and I was happy I decided to get into the water again, because it was - magical. Inside the cave the water was clear, still, deep and I felt like in a fish tank. Little schools of fish were swimming close to the surface. The view from inside the cavern toward the opening under water was breath-taking: against the light, the water was deep-blue to light-white. On the fringes of the caverns were many pink corals and fishes. Outside the cave, I was excited to observe a black-fin tuna hunting a group of smaller fishes without much luck.
Our sailing experience was enhanced by talking to the three local Tongans that joined us on this trip: our captain/skipper, his brother-in-law who now lives in MA and was visiting back home, and our snorkeling guide, all men in the middle of their lives, with family and kids of their own.
I loved to hear their stories, their connections to the cultural heritage and to Tonga.
What a day!